A Rower’s Redentore

It’s a whole different Redentore at water level, in the area designated for row boats only, just in front of the exclusive (and expensive) private party along the fondamenta at the Punta della Dogana.

The moon was full and the weather ideal — more like May than July. Music from decadent disco barges each completing to have its entertainment reign supreme wafted across the water, while we picnicked on a combination of traditional and contemporary dishes in boats decorated with frasche fresche (fresh branches) and multicolored lanterns that grew brighter as the sky darkened. About dessert time, kayakers began to appear like floating firecracking-seeking fireflies, their headlamps flashing as they bobbed about among the mass of anchored craft. Gondole threaded their way among boats of all sizes seeking the ideal spot from which to view the upcoming pyrotechnics (though it’s hard to find a bad one).

These photos are hardly tack-sharp, a difficult thing to attain from atop one floating vessel shooting more of the same — but you’ll get the idea. It was truly a spectacular display (with plenty of red, white and green this year, to commemorate Italy’s 150th anniversary) from sequences of more subtle pah-pah-pah-pah-pop cannon shots that seem to race along the canal’s edge, to a canopies of explosions that seemed to span the entire night sky, campanile to campanile, riva to riva. It went something like this…

Truly magical photos! Some of the ones with figures or just silhouettes in the foreground and lanterns make me think of the opening of Fellini’s Casanova: though the images here are actually much more beautiful (as beauty was not exactly what Fellini was entirely up to in that oddly staged film-set opening). I saw the fireworks live in person but I’m certainly glad not to have missed these photos of yours.

…and of course

Up for a swim?

Grit & Grazia

Preview Grit and Grazia, the feature-length documentary on the voga alla veneta, the unique rowing style that has propelled Venice through the centuries from its inception right to the present day and the women who are fighting to keep it a part of Venetian daily life.